. ..A
powerful voice in the pro-Israel lobby is
calling for a “witch-hunt” to root out individuals in the U.S. government who
are suspected of being hostile to Israel.
The call for a witch-hunt is based on the crazy
notion that “Islamo-fascists” and Muslim “jihadists”
have infested America’s defense, national
security and federal law Enforcement community.
Could this be a sign that the U.S. government is
coming to its senses?

. . .A leading voice of the pro-Israel lobby
is pushing for an old-style “witch-hunt”—
under the guise of ."homeland
security” —to identify (and
expel) individuals in the U.S. government
and our military who are suspected of being hostile
to Israel.. . .The call for a witch-hunt is based on the outlandish thesis
that “Islamo-fascists” and Muslim “jihadist” operatives
and, perhaps more particularly, their “sympathizers”—
however loosely defined — have infested America’s defense,
national security and federal law enforcement community.. . .The witch-hunt was proposed in the fall 2006 issue of
the small-circulation — but highly influential — Journal of
International Security Affairs published by the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). JINSA has
been one of the frontline forces in the fanatically pro-Israel “neo-conservative” circles directing foreign policy under
George W. Bush.. . .Not only Vice President Dick Cheney, but also UN
Ambassador John Bolton, former Deputy Under Secretary
of Defense Douglas Feith and Richard Perle, former chairman
of the Defense Policy Board — to name just a few big
Bush administration names — have all been associates of
JINSA. University of Pennsylvania Prof. Edward Herman
has described JINSA as “organized and [run] by individuals
closely tied to the Israeli lobby and can be regarded as a virtual
agency of the Israeli government.”. . .What first appears as commentary in JINSA’s Journal
often leads to very real policies carried out by the Bush
administration alone and sometimes in concert with
Capitol Hill which some critics have been known to cynically
call “Israeli occupied territory.”. . .The JINSA call for a witch-hunt came in the context of a
series of commentaries on “21st Century Allies . . . and
Adversaries” for the United States and Israel, which two
nations, of course, are seen in the JINSA world view as virtual
extensions of one another.. . .Zionist publications regularly assert that “anti-Israel”
sentiments must automatically be seen as “anti-American”
and even as “anti-Christian” in nature, a theme first loudly
propagated by the American Jewish Committee’s
Commentary magazine.. . .The commentaries, not surprisingly, named such countries
as Iran, Syria, Russia and Venezuela, as possible“adversaries” for the U.S.-Israel Axis. However, it was an
article by Walid Phares — who is associated with a Zionist
lobby front known as the Foundation for the Defense of
the Democracies — which made the suggestion that there
are very real “adversaries” on American soil, at high levels
in the American military and intelligence establishment. In
his article “Future Terrorism — Mutant Jihads,” Phares
asked:. . . “How deeply have jihadist elements infiltrated the U.S.
government and federal agencies, including the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland
Security, the Department of Defense, and various military
commands, either through sympathizers or via actual operatives?”. . .Although posed as a loaded question, Phares’s implication
was clear: he believes such a “threat” exists. The JINSA
writer then proclaimed the need for a “national consensus”
that requires “confronting these forces” based on “knowledge
of their ideologies, objectives and determination.”. . .Since there are few Muslim Americans or even Arab
Americans in any substantial numbers in the FBI, Homeland
Security, the Department of Defense, etc, the suggestion
that “jihadist” elements have “infiltrated” our government
might seem silly to the average American.. . .But in the fevered minds of JINSA and hard-line Zionist
elements, the real concern is that there are growing numbers
of people high up in the FBI and the CIA and in the
military who are getting “fed up” with Zionist power in
America. Top military leaders openly dismissed the need
for war against Iraq and Iran, both wars of which have been
long-time policy plans of the Zionist lobby. And all of this,
in the view of the JINSA sphere, constitutes effective collaboration
with and sympathy for the dreaded “jihadists.”. . .For example, on May 11, 2005, the New York-based Forward, a leading Jewish community newspaper, reported
that Barry Jacobs of the Washington office of the American
Jewish Committee said he believed there are high-ranking
officials inside the U.S. intelligence community who are
hostile to Israel and are waging war against pro-Israel lobbyists and their neo-conservative allies in the inner circles
of the Bush administration. . . .Citing the ongoing FBI investigation of espionage by
officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), the leading pro-Israel lobby group, Forward
reported that Jacobs believes, in Forward’s summary, that “the notion that American Jews and Pentagon neo-conservatives
conspired to push the United States into war against
Iraq, and possibly also against Iran, is pervasive in
Washington’s intelligence community.”. . .Obviously, with such thoughts running rampant in pro-
Israel circles, it is inevitable a leading pro-Israel policy
group such as JINSA would raise the specter of “infiltration”
by those who are seen as “sympathizers” and suggest
that they be purged from their positions in government
agencies.. . .So the threat of a witch-hunt happening is real. Despite
differences between the Bush administration and its
Democratic foes, both come together in one realm: satisfying
the Israeli lobby which funds both Democrats and
Republicans alike through a network of political action
committees and exercising its clout on Capitol Hill
through pressure groups such as the APIAC, the American
Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress and the
Anti-Defamation League.. . .It is ironic that JINSA should be the source of a demand
for an investigation of foreign agents and sympathizers
inside the American government. The founder of JINSA,
Stephen Bryen, a former Senate aide on Capitol Hill, faced
certain indictment on charges of espionage for Israel until
pressure on the Justice Department forced Justice to back
off.. . .Not only Bryen, but several others in the JINSA sphere
were under FBI investigation on similar charges relating to
their possible misuse of American defense and intelligence
information on Israel’s behalf. They include:. . . • Richard Perle, investigated in the 1970s when he was a top aide to then-Sen. Henry Jackson;. . . • Douglas Feith, who — although later promoted to a
high post in the Bush administration in 2001 — was fired from the National Security Council of President Ronald Reagan; and. . . • Paul Wolfowitz, now head of the World Bank and former
deputy secretary of defense in the Bush administration,
investigated in the 1970s by the FBI on suspicion of passing classified information to Israel.